teamsaint

Although that ended up being an incredibly exciting and memorable season, it was a very mediocre league campaign. But of course the following season was a different matter. Perhaps we need some patience. But I doubt that RM will get away with much more of what happened today.

It is Friday remember. All over for the week yesterday.

Not sure if anybody else has mentioned this, but Liverpool might be kicking themselves for missing out on a really decent player at a sensible price.

Might be trying to get past the receptionist to see a doctor ?

Presumably one thing that stops players running down their contracts in the last year when there is a good long term offer on the table is fear of something bad happening in terms of injury ?

So in cash or instalments we will get £53m less what we have outstanding to pay to city ( presumably somewhere around £5/7 m) less £8/9 of the profit to city. I realise that ignores add ons, so net around £40m ? There is an estimated £70m hole in the budget for this season and still a big hole next season( although player sales and salary reductions might decrease this substantially for next season). So the sales to date should comfortably cover this years deficit with maybe £30m left , less money laid out on Charles ? A spending spree looks pretty unlikely, esp given that we will surely be subsidising wages or taking a loss on some outgoing players .

Any indications on how bad Smallbone’s injury is ?

Toby.

It is true that we don’t often see important detail on big transfers. So if we did get £30m in cash rather than instalments, it might not be the worst deal ever. And you do have a point about his age and resale value. But it is hard to think of a better midfielder on a long existing contract that you could get for that sort of price.

£30 m being mentioned, which would be an absolute bargain. Maybe some last minute fun trying to twist Spurs’ arm ? either way, a gutter.

Useful as a utility player too. Filled in at LB when we beat Newcastle a couple of years ago IIRC ?

Well you might think this is a good time to learn those kind of lessons. Lets hope the learnings are being learned……

It will be an opening bid, but even given that, it is a pretty insultingly low bid, that is unlikely to impress JWP, unless they are offering astronomical wages.

You might think that, whatever happens, we need to recruit an absolute minimum of 1 for CM, unless we really think that Lavia and JWP will be here for the season. I guess elsewhere in the squad we can pretty much make do even with a few sales and nobody incoming ?

At some point the board will have to decide which of the better players they really want to keep, ( or at least a minumum price to sell) and play hardball with them and their agents. Presumably they already have a list of the ones to fight for, and Alcaraz must surely be on that list.

Liverpool hoping to get him on the cheap ? £25m is laughable at todays prices, obviously. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12181519/Liverpool-happy-hold-James-Ward-Prowse-Southampton-50m-asking-price.html

So which players will the board actually fight to keep, that is , players likely to receive significant bids ? JWP, Alcaraz, Che, Lyanco , Perraud, Bednarek, Stephens, Tella, Sully , DCC, SA ? I presume Mara is expected to stay ? Nobody seems to be discussing him. edit : actually, nobody is likely to bid more than we owe on Sully, so I guess he is out of that equation .

Anybody seen Chelsea’s Charlie Webster play ? Apparently there has been european interest,but he might make a very useful addition on loan, and has local connections. Will certainly need first team football soon .

The other Martin…The amazing Eric . a true entertainer.

It has been utterly awful, and the last 11 games before relegation was assured have to be an all time low in terms of “fighting” to avoid the drop. But even so, surely not worse than the Championship relegation season ?

We’ll likely still owe substantial instalments on Orsic, ABK, Perraud , Salisu and others so those can be knocked off any transfer fee we receive.

Alex Scott heading to the PL , surely ?

It’s time for him to Build a new team. Always the same when we get a new manager, it makes me Anxious. it could be that of the next few people to post, Five get over excited.

Actually, on reflection, would love to revisit it. But not sure now is the right moment, what with things being somewhat shambolic and all….

The 3-0 at Fulham when they got one each was a little bit of magic. ( Edit..I see Mikey88 above got there first….)